Earlier this year, CPVO looked at SAPISE from the breeder’s side: research, seed production, supply-chain control and the difficult economics behind bringing a new variety to market. Venere rice offers a chance to follow that story further. Almost three decades after its development, one variety now sits at the centre of a portfolio of 25 food products reaching more than 50 countries.
When CPVO spoke to SAPISE Director General Carlo Minoia in April, one of his observations went to the heart of plant breeding as a business. Agronomic performance alone does not create a successful variety. A breeder may spend years crossing, selecting and testing new material, but without interest further down the food chain, even good genetics can struggle to find a market.
Venere was his example. Developed by SAPISE in northern Italy in the 1990s, the black aromatic rice initially struggled to gain acceptance. Minoia recalled that it remained effectively “in the drawer” before the food industry began to see a market for a distinctive wholegrain rice. What followed is a useful case study in what can happen after breeding leaves the experimental field and enters a commercial chain. cpvo.europa.eu
Rice production in Europe is geographically concentrated: the EU harvested around 2.6 million tonnes in 2024, with Italy and Spain accounting for more than three quarters of output. Piemonte alone produced 791,000 tonnes and neighbouring Lombardia another 584,000 tonnes. Venere emerged from this specialised rice economy, where breeding, seed production and processing operate in close proximity.
From varietal innovation to industrial ingredient
At Risò 2026 in Vercelli, Riso Scotti and SAPISE provided a new measure of how far Venere has travelled. gdonews.it The range associated with the variety now comprises 25 consumer products and reaches more than 50 countries. Those figures describe something quite different from the launch of 25 new varieties. The genetic innovation remains Venere; what has multiplied are its commercial applications.
The partnership between SAPISE and Riso Scotti, launched in 2021, brought together two distinct parts of the chain. SAPISE contributed varietal research, seed expertise, agricultural production and control over the supply system. Riso Scotti brought processing capacity, product development, distribution and knowledge of consumer markets. SAPISE itself describes the arrangement as a joint venture for the distribution of Venere rice.
That combination gradually changed what Venere could be commercially. It moved beyond packaged wholegrain rice into ready-to-eat cups, pasta made partly with Venere rice flour, snacks and bread substitutes. In these products the variety is no longer simply the final food sold to the consumer. It becomes an ingredient around which other products are designed.
This distinction matters for plant breeding. The economic reach of a successful variety can extend well beyond seed multiplication or the first sale of harvested material. Genetic differentiation created at the beginning of the chain can later be translated into processing, convenience, branding, exports and new consumption occasions.
Venere shows what can happen when breeders, growers and processors manage to connect them.
What protection can make possible — and what comes after it
Venere also has a documented history with the EU plant variety protection system. The CPVO file is 1996/0061, cpvo.europa.eu covering Oryza sativa L. The Community Plant Variety Right eventually reached the end of its protection period on 31 December 2024, when the CPVO Official Gazette recorded its expiry.
That date makes the case particularly interesting from an intellectual-property perspective.
A Community Plant Variety Right is deliberately limited in time. During the protection period, its holder has exclusive rights over specified acts involving propagating material of the protected variety. The system creates a period in which the breeder can control commercial exploitation of the variety and seek a return on the work and investment behind it. It does not guarantee commercial adoption, and the legal right itself does not create consumer demand.
Venere illustrates the distinction unusually well. By the time its CPVR expired, value had accumulated around the genetic innovation in other forms: production expertise, relationships with growers, traceability systems, processing know-how, distribution channels and consumer recognition.
The agricultural structure behind the product has also become substantial. The Venere supply chain involves 16 farms in Piemonte and Sardinia and more than 1,000 hectares. SAPISE leads a traceability system certified under UNI EN ISO 22005, while production has adhered to the Sustainable Rice Platform standard since 2025.
Ente Nazionale Risi recorded 234,732 hectares under rice in 2025, 3.8% more than the previous year, with production estimated at about 1.44 million tonnes of paddy rice. Against that background, Venere is a relatively specialised production chain. Its significance lies less in volume than in the value built around a clearly identifiable variety.
The long distance between a new variety and a successful product
The figures presented at Risò also bring us back to something Minoia told CPVO in April. cpvo.europa.eu A variety that performs well in the field but attracts no agro-industrial interest may never break through commercially. The current Venere portfolio gives that argument a visible outcome.
A breeding programme created the variety. Seed producers and farmers made cultivation possible at scale. A controlled supply chain maintained its identity. An industrial partner then developed different ways of putting that identity in front of consumers.
The process took years, not months.
That is easy to forget when agricultural innovation is discussed mainly at the point at which a variety is registered, protected or launched. Breeding itself is long-term work, but the commercial trajectory can be just as long. In Venere’s case, the variety pre-dates its partnership with Riso Scotti by more than two decades. Its plant variety protection has now expired, while development of the food range around it continues.
This does not mean that every protected variety will follow the same path. Most will never become consumer-facing names, and a plant variety right cannot substitute for agronomic performance, industrial demand or a functioning route to market.
When CPVO examined the SAPISE model earlier this year, the story began with the seed: how breeding investment is protected, how quality is controlled and how a cooperative can organise production around varietal identity.
Venere now allows us to look from the other end of the chain.
One variety has become the basis for 25 products sold across more than 50 countries. The Community Plant Variety Right has completed its legal life. The commercial story built around the variety is still being written.
